Last month, national restaurant behemoth Landry's Inc. put in a $50 million bid to purchase the Palm Restaurant group, which comprises two dozen steakhouses in the U.S. and Mexico. While there hasn't been official word that the deal has closed, the original estimate was mid-March, and the fallout has already hit Denver.

The Palm Restaurant at 1672 Lawrence Street is closed as of March 10. The Palm's parent company, Just One More Restaurant Corp, filed for bankruptcy protection in 2019, and the restaurants were cleared to be put up for sale in December.

The Palm, which got it start in New York City in 1926, has been a downtown Denver staple since 1996, serving as a prime watering hole for wheelers and dealers, movers and shakers (despite the ignominious fact that its home previously housed a Hooters). As in the restaurant chain's other locations, caricatures of local celebrities decorated the walls — and many of them could be seen in person at the bar or enjoying a power lunch.

Downtown has no shortage of steakhouses, even with the closing of the Palm. Guard and Grace, Elway's, Edge Restaurant & Bar, Morton's, STK and Ruth's Chris all serve up sizzling slabs of steer, and newer players like Butcher's Bistro, Citizen Rail, Urban Farmer and Hearth & Dram have put a new spin on dry-aging, whole animal butchery and alternative meat cuts.

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